The police service inspectorate highlighted the scale of damage from anti-social behaviour and what the police could do to improve their response. When the police took swift action, the public were very satisfied: but the police did not always attend calls for help, and their systems were not always able to identify repeat callers or the most vulnerable.
Source: Anti-Social Behaviour: Stop the Rot, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary | Martin Innes and Nicola Weston, Re-thinking the Policing of Anti-Social Behaviour, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
Links: Report | Research report | HMIC press release | Home Office press release | Cardiff University press release | Labour Party press release | Mencap press release | Police Federation press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Sep
A report said that residents, youth workers, volunteers, and public sector workers should play a greater role in tackling anti-social behaviour and local policing.
Source: Ben Rogers, The Woolwich Model: Can citizens tackle anti-social behaviour?, Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce Links: Report | RSA press release | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Home Secretary described the approach by the previous Labour government to anti-social behaviour as 'top-down', 'bureaucratic' and 'gimmick-laden', and said that anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) were an inadequate response to the problem.
Source: Speech by Theresa May MP (Home Secretary), 28 July 2010
Links: Text of speech | CIH press release | Labour Party press release | Liberal Democrats press release | BBC report | New Start report | Children & Young People Now report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jul
A report examined government-funded evaluations of the effectiveness of the Family Intervention Project (aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour). It said that successive evaluation teams had offered 'large caveats' to claims of project success, which had been ignored by the (former) government in media statements and other public policy announcements: the claimed success rate was based only on a core sample of the families who were the most compliant.
Source: David Gregg, Family Intervention Projects: A Classic Case of Policy-Based Evidence, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies/King's College London
Links: Report | CCJS press release | Children & Young People Now report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article examined the impact of the increase in post-compulsory schooling and economic growth on conviction rates for anti-social behaviour in England. The expansion of post-compulsory education was important for reductions in anti-social behaviour regardless of the additional impact of economic growth. Additionally, economic growth itself was found not to be associated with reductions in anti-social behaviour.
Source: Ricardo Sabates, 'Educational expansion, economic growth and antisocial behaviour: evidence from England', Educational Studies, Volume 36 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-May
Researchers analyzed anti-social behaviour in terms of the seven-strand definition used to measure perceptions in the British Crime Survey. Perceptions of anti-social behaviour were a matter of interpretation. There was frequently a mismatch between an objective measure of anti-social behaviour and perceptions.
Source: Simon Mackenzie et al., The Drivers of Perceptions of Anti-Social Behaviour, Research Report 34, Home Office
Date: 2010-Mar
A report provided monitoring information on family intervention projects designed to tackle issues such as anti-social behaviour and drug abuse. The results continued to show 'overwhelmingly positive' outcomes for families.
Source: National Centre for Social Research, ASB Family Intervention Projects: Monitoring and Evaluation, Research Report RR215, Department for Children, Schools and Families
Links: Report | DCSF press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The police service inspectorate said that there was 'no up-to-date credible' data on the service delivered by the police in England and Wales to victims of anti-social behaviour.
Source: Press release 11 March 2010, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
Links: HMIC press release | ACPO press release | Police Federation press release | Cardiff University press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Mar
A paper examined ways in which local partnerships could take a systems approach to the problem of anti-social behaviour, helping them to address both its causes and its consequences.
Source: Roger King and Munira Thobani, A Systems Approach to Managing the Causes and Consequences of Antisocial Behaviour, Office of Public Management
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined the role of housing professionals in the management of cases of anti-social behaviour involving people suffering from mental ill-health. Housing practitioners were not adequately equipped to make judgements on the culpability of 'perpetrators' who were suffering mental ill-health, or to ensure that their response was appropriate. This raised questions about the training housing officers received, and whether the competing policy aims of community care and tackling anti-social behavior could be reconciled.
Source: Sadie Parr, 'The role of social housing in the "care" and "control" of tenants with mental health problems', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan
An article examined the relationship between the characterization of, and response to, anti-social behaviour issues in areas of high ethnic diversity and emerging 'post-multicultural' policies of integration, cohesion, and citizenship.
Source: David Prior, 'Disciplining the multicultural community: ethnic diversity and the governance of anti-social behaviour', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan
An article examined the use of anti-social behaviour powers in relation to street sex workers. The use of legal tools – anti-social behaviour orders and public nuisance injunctions – against sex workers had been both misplaced and ineffective.
Source: Tracey Sagar, 'Anti-social powers and the regulation of street sex work', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan
An article said that existing theoretical approaches to the governance of anti-social behaviour had certain limits that might be overcome by an emphasis on its gendered dimensions.
Source: Helen Carr, 'Looking again at discipline and gender: theoretical concerns and possibilities in the study of anti-social behaviour initiatives', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan
An article examined recent published research concerning the application of the anti-social behaviour powers to various 'vulnerable' sections of society. It highlighted key emerging themes and identified some of the research gaps.
Source: Gary Manders, 'The use of anti-social behaviour powers with vulnerable groups: some recent research', Social Policy and Society, Volume 9 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan